The present invention relates to an assembly for transporting yarn packages having automatic path diverting capability and, more particularly, to an assembly for transporting yarn packages individually supported on tube support members and having the capability of selectively automatically diverting tube support members from one path onto another path.
In several known transport arrangements for transporting yarn packages in association with textile machines, the yarn packages are individually supported on tube support members which provide the flexibility to independently handle each yarn package separately from the other yarn packages. German Patent Document DE 40 16 465A1 discloses an improvement in this type of yarn package transport arrangement. The document discloses an endless belt which cyclicly reverses its direction of travel to continuously transport tube support members with yarn packages thereon past the entrance ends of a plurality of branch or spur transport paths which each transport yarn packages to a winding station of a textile winding machine. These branch transport paths each include endless belts whose top runs extend sufficiently into the transport path of the yarn packages being transported by the cyclicly reversing endless member that the tube support members are automatically drawn into the individual branch paths if space is available to receive the tube support members.
Since the individual branch paths extending through each textile winding station automatically draw the tube support members therein, some accommodation must be provided to prevent additional tube support members from entering an individual branch path without, however, interfering with the cyclicly reversing operation of the endless member which transports the tube support members past the entry ends of the individual branch transport paths. One known solution is to dimension each individual branch transport path such that, when a full complement of tube support members have been received in the reserve position of the path, the lastmost one of the tube support members in the reserve position prevents the entry of those tube support members still being cyclicly reversibly transported by the cyclicly reversing endless member, without extending so far into the path of the still to be delivered tube support member as to impede their back and forth movement. However, this known arrangement does not provide adequate flexibility reconfiguring an individual branch path to hold more or fewer tube support members in its reserve locations since only a single predetermined number of tube support members can be accommodated in the reserve location. Accordingly, improvements are desirable in assemblies for transporting yarn packages along and around a textile winding machine.